The Passing of a Legend: Luciano Pavarotti
THE TELEGRAPH: Luciano Pavarotti, the most celebrated opera singer of modern times, died this morning in his home near Modena.

Mr Pavarotti, 71, had been suffering from pancreatic cancer since July 2006. Although his family had said he was in remission, his manager said today that it was this illness that claimed his life.

Terri Robson, his manager, announced that the tenor died at 5:00am at his home in Modena, the city of his birth. At his side were his wife, Nicoletta, his daughters, Lorenza, Cristina, Giuliana and Alice; his sister, Gabriela; his nephews and close relatives and friends.

"The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life. In fitting with the approach that characterised his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness," she added.

Mr Pavarotti had recently assured his fans that he was in good health, and had even joked about his sickness.

Last month, he phoned a concert on the island of Ischia to assure the public that he was about to release a new album of choral work, and that he looked forward to teaching his pupils again.

"Up until a few weeks before his death, he committed several hours each day to teaching his pupils at his summer villa in Pesaro on Italy's Adriatic Coast," said Ms Robson.

"He remained optimistic and confident that he would overcome the disease and had been determined to return to the stage to complete his Worldwide Farewell Tour, which he was halfway through before being struck down by illness," she added. Opera great Luciano Pavarotti has died (more) By Malcolm Moore in Modena

Pavarotti: Opera great with a popular touch By Rupert Christiansen

WATCH & LISTEN:

Pavarotti – Nessun Dorma: Paris 1998

Pavarotti – Nessun Dorma: Torino 2006

Luciano Pavarotti – Ave Maria: - Schubert

James Brown & Luciano Pavarotti

Pavarotti & Barry White - My first, my last, my everything

THE THREE TENORS:

O sole mio

La donna e mobile

Or click here:

WATCH SOME OF LUCIANO PAVAROTTI’S GREATEST PERFORMANCES

BBC:
Opera legend Pavarotti dies at 71

BBC:
Timeline: Luciano Pavarotti

BBC:
Luciano Pavarotti’s Life in Pictures

LE FIGARO:
"Il y avait des ténors et il y avait Pavarotti"

CORRIERA DELLA SERA:
Lirica in lutto, è morto Luciano Pavarotti

LA REPUBBLICA:
Luciano Pavarotti è morto
"Ricordatemi come cantante d'opera"

NZZ:
Luciano Pavarotti gestorben: Lebenslust, Italianità und gewaltige Stimme

FAZ:
Schier unendlicher Atem

Mark Alexander

Want a Book on Islamic Terrorism? No Problem! Go to Your Local Public Library!
THE TELEGRAPH: Public libraries are stocking hundreds of Islamic books by advocates of "holy war", with many glorifying acts of terrorism, a new report claims.

Council taxpayers' money has been spent on the books, with one library stocking works by the convicted preachers Abu Hamza and Abdullah al-Faisal.

An investigation by a leading think-tank found extremist literature at six libraries, three in the London area, two in the Midlands and one in the North.

It raises fears that public libraries could inadvertently fuel the radicalisation of young Muslims. Report: Libraries stock Islamic terror books (more) By Duncan Gardham

Mark Alexander

Rumblings in the Kingdom
BBC: A senior Saudi prince has said he plans to form a political party and has criticised other senior royals for monopolising power and blocking reform.

Talal Bin Abdul-Aziz, a half-brother of King Abdullah, also criticised the jailing of well-known reformists.

Saudi officials made no immediate comment to Prince Talal's remarks.

The prince, who holds no official post, is seen as something of a maverick due to his past calls for reform, says BBC Middle East analyst Roger Hardy.

In the 1960s, he became known as the "Red Prince" when he broke with the ruling family and went into exile in Egypt, whose president, Gamal Abdul Nasser, was a severe critic of the Gulf kingdom. Senior Saudi royal demands reform (more)

Mark Alexander

Tough Times In Tehran

Photo of dour shoppers in Tehran courtesy of the New York Times

NEW YORK TIMES: TEHRAN, Sept. 4 — Rents are soaring, inflation hovers around 17 percent, and 10 million Iranians live below the poverty line. The police said they shut 20 barbershops for men in Tehran last week because they offered inappropriate hairstyles, and women have been banned from riding bicycles in many places, as a crackdown on social freedoms presses on.

For months now, average Iranians have endured economic hardships, political repression and international isolation as the nation’s top officials remained defiant over Iran’s nuclear program. But in a country whose leaders see national security, government stability and Islamic values as inextricably entwined, problems that usually would constitute threats to the leadership are instead viewed as an opportunity to secure its rule.

Paradoxically, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s economic missteps and the animosity generated in the West by his aggressive posture on the nuclear issue have helped Iran’s leaders hold back what they see as corrupting foreign influences, by increasing the country’s economic and political isolation, said economists, diplomats, political analysts, businessmen and clerics interviewed over the past two weeks.

Pressure from the West, including biting economic sanctions, over Iran’s nuclear program and its role in Iraq have also empowered those pushing the harder line.

“The leader is concerned that any effort to make the country more manageable will lead to reform and will undermine his authority,” said Saeed Leylaz, an economist and former government official of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The effort to keep Iran’s doors to the West sealed tight was on display on Sunday, when Mr. Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had developed 3,000 centrifuges and mocked the West for trying to press Iran to stop uranium enrichment and slow its nuclear program.

On Monday, Ayatollah Khamenei used Western pressure to rally public sentiment. “Iran will defeat these drunken and arrogant powers using its artful and wise ways,” he told a group of students, according to state-run television. Hard Times Help Leaders in Iran Tighten Grip (more) By Michael Slackman

Mark Alexander

Germany Foils Islamic Terror Attack
TIMESONLINE: German police have foiled a potentially huge terrorist attack in what they believe may be the first case of white, home-grown Islamist terrorists in Europe.

Three men - two Germans and a Turk who are believed to have received explosives training at a terrorist camp in Pakistan - were arraigned by the federal prosecutor today, capping a nine-month police operation.

During that time, undercover agents, supplied with intelligence from the United States, followed and eavesdropped on the young men as they collected 750 kilos of hydrogen peroxide and military detonators to be used in simultaneous suicide truck bomb attacks on American installations and meeting places.

Hydrogen peroxide was a key ingredient in the London Tube bombs, but experts said the explosives being prepared in a villa in the Black Forest would have wrought destrution [sic] on an even greater scale.

Conversations between the suspected terrorists, bugged by the police, mentioned the Ramstein air base, Frankfurt Airport and clubs used by American families as possible targets.

”They were motivated by hatred of America and this influenced their choice of targets,” said Juergen Ziercke, president of the Federal Criminal Investigation Agency (BKA), the German equivalent of Scotland Yard.

Several terrorist plots have been nipped in the bud in Germany since September 11, 2001, but this one has shocked Germans more than any other as it exposed the existence of jihadists as a home-grown terrorist potential. German police foil huge car bomb terror attack (more)

Mark Alexander

The Rise and Rise of the Sleazocrats in British Politics
DAILY MAIL: Five years ago I spent several weeks in Zimbabwe reporting on the way that President Mugabe was brutalising his people, in part thanks to the inertia and complicity of the Tony Blair government.

After I returned, Sir Patrick Cormack, a Conservative Party backbencher, invited me to his room. He wanted to ask what questions he should put to a government minister who would soon be giving evidence on Zimbabwe to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, of which he was a member.

So I told Cormack about a strange event that had occurred the previous month. President Mugabe had been invited to Paris by President Chirac for a summit meeting. This example of European approval of a barbarous dictator caused uproar.

When Downing Street was asked about the episode, it gave the impression to reporters that it had neither been consulted nor informed, while ministers spoke out angrily against the invitation.

In fact I was able to show Cormack evidence that the British government had known all along about the invitation, raised not the slightest objection, that its protestations of ignorance were false, and that the angry pronouncements by ministers were no better than a cynical device. I suggested to Cormack that he should expose this wretched business at the Foreign Affairs Committee, and offered to draft him a list of questions.

Sir Patrick gazed around his large and beautifully appointed Commons office. He looked appalled. "Oh, I could never do that," he stated. "It might embarrass the Government."

Since then I have often noted Sir Patrick nod with vigorous approval from the Conservative side as Tony Blair spoke from the dispatch box. I have seen him cross the floor of the House to offer sympathy and support to a government minister in trouble.

I have also been reliably told that he wrote a letter of rebuke to a younger Tory MP in a neighbouring constituency who attacked the Government. "That is not the sort of thing we do in Staffordshire," declared Cormack.

Cormack has his fans who believe that he represents a 'civilised' kind of politics. I cannot agree. Voters put their MPs into Parliament to represent their interests and articulate their concerns, and sometimes anger, not to form part of a comfortable club, or to collude with opposition parties.

Sir Patrick is one of hundreds of Members of Parliament who now belong to a Political Class that has become entrenched at the centre of British politics, government and society.

This new Political Class has emerged over the past three decades to become the dominant force in British public life - and increasingly pursues its own sectional interests oblivious to the public good.

It encompasses lobbyists, party functionaries, advisers and spindoctors, many journalists, and increasing numbers of onceindependent civil servants. All mainstream politicians of the three main parties belong to it. Gordon Brown is a member, so is the Tory leader David Cameron.

Indeed, as the case of Sir Patrick Cormack shows, MPs from different parties now have far more in common with each other, as members of the Political Class, than they have with voters. They seek to protect one another, help each other out, rather than engage in robust democratic debate.

As a result, the House of Commons is no longer really a cockpit where great conflicts of vision are fought out across the chamber. It has converted instead into a professional group, like the Bar Council or the British Medical Association.

This means that the most important division in Britain is no longer the Tory versus Labour dividing line that marked out the battle zone in politics for the bulk of the 20th century. The real division is between a narrow, self-serving and - as we will see - increasingly corrupt Political Class and the mass of ordinary voters. PETER OBORNE: The rise of the sleaze-ocrats in Britain's ruling class (more)

Mark Alexander

German Commentators Scathing About Both British and American Strategy in Iraq
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: British troops withdrew from Basra Monday just as US President George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq. German commentators are scathing of both the British and American strategy.

Monday was a day of symbols in Iraq. Just as British forces were making their withdrawal from Basra in the south (more...), US President George W. Bush made a surprise visit to Anbar province west of Baghdad.

Bush, who was accompanied by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, held talks at a US air base with Gen. David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The Pentagon described the meeting, which was Bush's third secret trip to Iraq in four years, as a "war council."

In an unusual move, Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani also met with Bush at the air base. It was only the third time Maliki, who is Shiite, had visited the Sunni-dominated province, where violence has recently abated after Sunni tribal leaders and former insurgents joined forces with US troops to fight al-Qaida and other extremists.

Addressing troops at the base, Bush insisted any decision to withdraw troops would be "based on a calm assessment by our military commanders on the conditions on the ground, not a nervous reaction by Washington politicians to poll results in the media. ... When we begin to draw down troops from Iraq, it will be from a position of strength and success, not from a position of fear and failure."

Bush said that Petraeus and Crocker had told him that "if the kind of success we are now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces." He did not specify how many troops might be withdrawn or any possible timetable for withdrawal.

Monday's visit came just days before Petraeus and Crocker are due to deliver a much-anticipated report to Congress on the situation in Iraq and the success of Bush's "surge" strategy. It also coincided with the withdrawal of British troops (more...) from the southern city of Basra, which has caused tension between the UK and US.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted Monday that the pullout was not a defeat. He told the BBC that the withdrawal was "pre-planned and organized" and UK forces would take an "overwatch" role -- in other words, troops would not go out unless requested by Iraqi authorities, but they would still train and mentor Iraqi security forces. Brown said the number of British troops in Iraq would remain roughly the same, and that they could "re-intervene," if necessary. 'Tehran Will Be Delighted to Accept the Gift of Basra' (more)

Mark Alexander

Eight ‘Bomb’ Suspects with Alleged Ties to al-Qaeda Arrested in Denmark
BBC: Danish police have arrested eight people with alleged links to al-Qaeda on suspicion of planning a bomb attack.

The eight suspects arrested late on Monday in Copenhagen form part of a terror cell with links to a senior al-Qaeda figure, police said.

The suspects, aged between 19 and 29, were of Afghan, Pakistani, Somali and Turkish origin, police said.

Denmark's contribution to the US-led military campaign in Iraq has prompted fears that terrorists may target it.

The country also drew anger from Muslims worldwide after a Danish newspaper last year printed cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Denmark arrests ‘bomb’ suspects (more)

Mark Alexander

Excellent Radio Broadcast: Robert Spencer on BlogRadio with WC & AlwaysOnWatch
LISTEN HERE
Mark Alexander

Haleh Esfandiari Has Left Iran

Photo of Haleh Esfandiari courtesy of the BBC

BBC: A leading Iranian-American academic who was jailed for three months in Iran on spying charges has left the country.

Haleh Esfandiari's husband, Shaul Bakhash, told the Fars news agency that she had flown to Austria, and would later return to the US.

Ms Esfandiari works for a research institute in Washington. Released US academic leaves Iran (more)

Mark Alexander

Wer in Ägypten zum Christentum übertreten will, hat es schwierig

Foto von Papst Shenouda III dank der Neuen Zürcher Zeitung

NZZ: Nur wenige ägyptische Muslime, die sich zum Christentum hingezogen fühlen, wagen den Schritt zum Übertritt. Er führt zu Spannungen mit der Familie und nicht selten zur Verfolgung durch Polizei und religiöse Autoritäten. Wer konvertiert, tut es fast immer heimlich.

ber. Kairo, im August

Mohammed Higazi, ein zum Christentum bekehrter Ägypter, hat kürzlich ein Asylangebot aus Rom erhalten. Seine Bekannten bezweifeln, dass er, wie er behauptet, in seiner Heimat bleiben will, ganz gleich, was auch immer geschieht. Der auf ihm lastende Druck sei zu gross, meinen sie. Erst vor kurzem hatte Higazi seine Bekehrung öffentlich gemacht; sie wurde in Zeitungen aufgegriffen. Zwar waren vor ihm schon etliche muslimische Ägypter zum Christentum übergetreten, doch ist Higazi der Erste, der offen darüber spricht. Anlass war die Schwangerschaft seiner ebenfalls konvertierten Frau. Das Paar will nach eigenem Bekunden sein Kind christlich erziehen. Zum Christentum konvertierte Ägypter – eine rare Spezies: Der Übertritt zum Islam wird leicht-, der Austritt dagegen schwergemacht (mehr)

Mark Alexander

After the White House, Bush Wants to Replenish the Ol’ Coffers and Relax
THE GUARDIAN: · President tells of regrets in office and retirement plans
· Dead Certain author given rare vision of private life

Jimmy Carter has dedicated his life after the White House to conflict resolution around the world. Presidents George Bush the elder and Bill Clinton have campaigned together on behalf of communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina. So how does President George Bush junior imagine spending his retirement years?

"I can just envision getting in the car, getting bored, going down to the ranch," he says. He also has big plans for making money. "I'll give some speeches, to replenish the ol' coffers," says Mr Bush, who is already estimated to be worth $20m. "I don't know what my dad gets - it's more than 50-75 [thousand dollars a speech], and "Clinton's making a lot of money".

The insights into Mr Bush's ambitions once he steps down from the most powerful job on Earth in January 2009 are contained in a series of interviews he gave to a journalist from GQ magazine. It may be that the writer, Robert Draper, comes from Texas, like his subject, but whatever the reason, Mr Bush has chosen to be singularly open with the author and provide a rare glimpse into the inner life of a very private president.

During the course of six one-hour interviews, Mr Bush, feet up on his desk, munching on low-fat hotdogs, tells Draper of the loneliness of the US commander-in-chief. "Self-pity is the worst thing that can happen to a presidency. This is a job where you can have a lot of self-pity," Mr Bush says.

When it all gets too much for the president, his wife Laura storms to the rescue. "She reminds me that I decided to do this," he tells Draper. Bush’s great ambition: wealthy boredom (more) By Ed Pilkington in New York

THE TELEGRAPH:
Bush gives hint of life after the White House By Alex Spillius in Washington

Mark Alexander

Fall-Out Over the Depiction of Prophet Muhammad as a Dog

Cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a dog’s body

THE LOCAL: Leading figures in Sweden's media industry have backed newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, which has been criticised by Iran for publishing a cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog. The paper itself has meanwhile defended its decision to publish.

PeO Wärring, deputy chairman of the Swedish Newspaper Publishers' Association (TU), said that regardless of what people thought of the cartoons it was important that they could be published and debated.

"The strength of freedom of expression lies in the fact that it tolerates - and protects - not only comfortable, harmless and uncontroversial opinions, but also those that are tasteless, controversial, upsetting and offensive," he said in a statement.

The cartoon in question, by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, depicted Muhammad's head on the body of a dog. Vilks had found it hard to find a gallery willing to display his work, and Nerikes Allehanda published the cartoon alongside an editorial on freedom of expression.

A Swedish diplomat was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Monday to receive a protest from the Iranian government about the cartoon. Paper defends Muhammad dog cartoon (more)

Mark Alexander

Still More Cartoon Protests from Muslims!
THE TELEGRAPH: Fears grew of a new confrontation over images deemed blasphemous by Muslims as Pakistan joined Iran in protest over a sketch by a Swedish artist portraying the prophet Mohammed as a dog.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said it had summoned the Swedish charge d'affaires to condemn "in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet".

The move adds to a chorus of criticism over the series of drawings, by artist Lars Vilks, one of which was published earlier this month by a regional Swedish newspaper.

The drawings show the head of a turbaned man attached to the body of a dog, in front of various settings including a football goal.

The publication, in the newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, came after several galleries had refused to display the drawings, apparently for fear of violent retaliation from offended Muslims.

Early last year, violent demonstrations erupted throughout the Muslim world after the publication in Denmark of 112 cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed which were also deemed blasphemous.

"Alongside the picture, we published a comment piece saying that it was serious that there is self-censorship among exhibition [galleries]," said the Nerikes Allehanda editor-in-chief, Ulf Johansson.

Last weekend, a small gathering of protestors gathered outside the newspaper's offices to demonstrate against the cartoon's publication. New Muslim cartoon protests grow (more)

Mark Alexander

Malaysia Considers Hardline Islamic Law
THE TELEGRAPH: Hardline Islamic law could be introduced across Malaysia under reforms proposed by the country's chief justice.

As the nation in south-east Asia celebrated 50 years of independence from Britain yesterday, its government was preparing to discuss a plan that would revolutionise the legal system put in place by its former colonial administrators.

As Kuala Lumpur witnessed celebrations that included parades, fireworks and a fighter-jet fly-by attended by the Duke of York, the proposal pointed to the deep differences which locals say are poisoning social relations beyond the glitter and skyscrapers of Malaysia's modern capital city.

Ahmad Fairuz, the chief justice, told an Islamic conference in Kuala Lumpur that 50 years of independence had failed to free Malaysia from the "clutches of colonialism". Sharia law should be "infused" into the gaps created by abolishing common law, he said.

Malaysia's non-Muslim Chinese and Indian communities, who form 40 per cent of the population, are alarmed at creeping Islamisation.

Abdul Badawi, the prime minister, this month joined other leaders for the first time in denying what the British-authored constitution has said for 50 years - that Malaysia is a secular state.

Sharia law already operates in some Malaysian states and is occasionally applied to non-Muslims, as in July when Islamic officials forcibly separated a Hindu-Muslim couple with six children after 21 years of marriage.

The majority ethnic Malays are defined as Muslim by law and forbidden from converting.

Racial tensions are already high due to official discrimination in favour of Malays, who enjoy better employment opportunities, preferential loans and lower house prices.

Dr Mohd Hatta, of the Islamic Party, welcomed the latest proposal in principle, but said: "The chief justice should be enforcing laws, not making them."

Meanwhile, dissent is increasingly harshly repressed. Journalists and bloggers say they are tailed by police and their phones are tapped. [Source: Malaysia considers switch to Islamic law By Thomas Bell in Kuala Lumpur]

Mark Alexander

Muslims Want Separation from the Buddhist North of Thailand
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Muslim separatists in the south of Thailand want to secede from the Buddhist north and have targeted monks and other representatives of the state. But they also claim to have been victims of government atrocities.

Udom Dhamakhani, 67, lifts himself laboriously from his wooden cot, on which he has just recited his Buddhist sutras. He straightens his saffron-colored robe and peers out through his oversized reading glasses.

Unusually for a monk's cell, the room contains a monitor showing images from four surveillance cameras: the veranda, the door of his cell, the main temple -- and a bunker. The shelter is occupied by soldiers who have turned Wat Lakmnang monastery on the outskirts of the southern Thai city of Pattani into a fortress. "It's all because of the trouble out there," the monk grumbles.

More than 2,400 have already died "out there," in Songkhla, Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat provinces, in an insurgency started by Muslim rebels. They want the region in southern Thailand, which is home to 1.9 million Malay-speaking Muslims, to secede from the rest of the predominantly Buddhist country.

Dhamakhani is not just the abbot of Wat Lakmnang, but also the head of all Buddhist temples in Pattani province. Because his fellow monks have reported on the radio about the atrocities being committed by the rebels, Dhamakhani is also in danger. He has already survived three rebel attacks. He would have been dead long ago without the protection of the two dozen soldiers stationed at his monastery.

It is seven in the morning, and reports of night attacks are already crackling from the walkie-talkie on his night table. Twelve schools were burned to the ground, but this time there were no casualties. For the rebels, Buddhist temples, military barracks, public buildings and minor officials, such as local mayors and teachers, are all hated symbols of the government in Bangkok.

At 10:15 a.m., an informant reports an explosion on National Route 409 near the village of Yarang, a 15-minute drive from the monastery. Dhamakhani immediately dispatches one of his reporters.
The police have sealed off the road. An armored vehicle has arrived with a soldier wearing a bulletproof vest and steel helmet in the turret, his machine gun in position. He nervously surveys the area. The rebels often place explosives in the underbrush, designed to explode when the troops arrive. There is a gaping hole in the asphalt. The explosion hurled a Toyota van with seven soldiers inside into the ditch. One soldier was beheaded and the others were injured.

A Volatile History
Southern Thailand has always been a volatile region. In 1902 the king of Siam annexed the majority Muslim region, which had been ruled until then by the Sultan of Pattani. Drug barons, smugglers and clan leaders soon took control of the remote border region.
The government in faraway Bangkok has always neglected the south, where unemployment is higher than in the north. Until recently, all governors of the southern provinces were Buddhists from the north. Now local residents' aversion to the incomers has turned into hate. Muslims Battle Buddhists in Thailand's Troubled South (more) By Jürgen Kremb

Mark Alexander

Still More Cartoon Protests Annoy Muslims!
THE TELEGRAPH: Fears grew of a new confrontation over images deemed blasphemous by Muslims as Pakistan joined Iran in protest over a sketch by a Swedish artist portraying the prophet Mohammed as a dog.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said it had summoned the Swedish charge d'affaires to condemn "in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet".

The move adds to a chorus of criticism over the series of drawings, by artist Lars Vilks, one of which was published earlier this month by a regional Swedish newspaper.

The drawings show the head of a turbaned man attached to the body of a dog, in front of various settings including a football goal.

The publication, in the newspaper Nerikes Allehanda, came after several galleries had refused to display the drawings, apparently for fear of violent retaliation from offended Muslims.

Early last year, violent demonstrations erupted throughout the Muslim world after the publication in Denmark of 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed which were also deemed blasphemous.

"Alongside the picture, we published a comment piece saying that it was serious that there is self-censorship among exhibition [galleries]," said the Nerikes Allehanda editor-in-chief, Ulf Johansson.
Last weekend, a small gathering of protestors gathered outside the newspaper's offices to demonstrate against the cartoon's publication. New Muslim cartoon protests grow (more)

BBC:
Sweden 'regrets' Prophet cartoon

Mark Alexander

Brown Tries It On
DAILY MAIL: Something very odd has been going on in Britain this August. Ever more people - including, we are told, more than 100 of his own MPs - have been waking up to the realisation that our Prime Minister Gordon Brown is attempting to get away with one of the most shameless and fraudulent gambles in our political history.

It was bad enough that his fellow European leaders should have conspired to smuggle the rejected EU constitution back onto their political agenda simply by giving it a different name: the "Reform Treaty".

At least most of them have been honest enough to admit that its contents are essentially the same as those of the constitution which was chucked out by the French and Dutch voters in 2005.

But in Mr Brown's case, he has been guilty of a double deception. He has tried to pretend that the new treaty is completely different from the old constitution - and he has done so because he hopes it will let him off the hook of that manifesto promise on which he and the Labour Government were elected in 2005: to hold a referendum.

Poll after poll in recent weeks has shown overwhelming majorities in favour of a referendum. Most of our newspapers are demanding a referendum. David Cameron and the Tory Party are demanding a referendum.

Even many of his own MPs are now asking that he honours that promise of a referendum on which they were elected - with the support of trade unions that sponsor no fewer than 12 members of his own Cabinet.

Yet Mr Brown is gambling that he can break that promise for one simple reason - because he thinks he can get away with it. The EU constitution is one of the biggest political gambles Mr Brown could make (more) By Christopher Booker

Mark Alexander

” Es wandern deutlich mehr Schweizer ins Ausland ab”
NZZ: Ende 2006 haben in der Schweiz 7'508'700 Einwohner gelebt. Dies sind knapp 50'000 mehr als ein Jahr zuvor. Diese Zunahme ist hauptsächlich auf die Zuwanderung aus dem Ausland und zu einen kleineren Teil auf einen Geburtenüberschuss zurückzuführen. Die städtischen Gebiete wuchsen etwas stärker als die Landgebiete.

bbu. Die Bevölkerung in der Schweiz nimmt stetig zu, wobei das Wachstumstempo seit dem Jahr 2000 ziemlich konstant anhält. Im Jahr 2006 gab es mit 49'600 zusätzlichen Einwohnern wiederum eine Zunahme von 0,7 Prozent. Erstmals wurde damit die Grenze von 7,5 Millionen Einwohnern überschritten, wie das Bundesamt für Statistik (BfS) am Donnerstag mitteilte.

Mehr Geburten und mehr Migranten

Der Grund dafür ist zum einen auf einen Geburtenüberschuss von 13'100 Kindern zurückzuführen (über 73'000 Geburten standen gut 60'000 Todesfällen gegenüber). Vor allem aber wirkte sich der Einwanderungsüberschuss von knapp 40'000 Migranten aus, die 2006 in die Schweiz kamen. Beide Zahlen waren 2006 höher als im Vorjahr.

Der Wanderungssaldo spielt bei der Zunahme der Wohnbevölkerung laut BfS schon seit 1999 eindeutig die Hauptrolle. Dabei hat sich die Mobilität in beide Richtungen verstärkt: 2006 wanderten 8,2 Prozent mehr Ausländer in die Schweiz ein als im Vorjahr. Es wanderten aber auch 6,4 Prozent mehr Ausländer zurück ins Ausland aus.

Immer mehr Schweizer wandern aus

Der positive Wanderungssaldo der Ausländer (+49'400 Personen) gleicht im Übrigen den negativen Wanderungssaldo der Schweizer (-10'100 Personen) aus. Mit anderen Worten: Es wandern deutlich mehr Schweizer ins Ausland ab, als solche aus dem Ausland zurück in die Heimat kommen. Seit nunmehr fünf Jahren nimmt dieser Auswanderungsüberschuss der Schweizer zudem immer stärker zu. Die Schweiz zählt erstmals über 7,5 Millionen Einwohner: Erneute Zunahme hauptsächlich wegen Migration aus dem Ausland

Mark Alexander

From a Great Man!
Sugar Candy

"We have not journeyed across the centuries, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the prairies, because we are made of sugar candy." — Churchill Speech, Canadian Parliament, 30 December 1941

Never Give In

"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.'' — Churchill Speech, 29 October 1941, Harrow

We shall fight on the beaches

"We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!" — Churchill Speech, about Dunkirk, House of Commons, 4 June 1940

Mark Alexander

Kouchner spricht von einer dauernhaften Krise Amerikas!
FAZ: 30. August 2007

Der französische Außenminister Bernard Kouchner hat zum Abschluss der französischen Botschafterkonferenz in Paris kritische Töne zur künftigen Rolle der Weltmacht Amerika anklingen lassen. „Die Krise der amerikanischen Dominanz verfestigt sich“, sagte Kouchner am Mittwochabend. „Sie wird dauerhafter sein, als es aussieht“, sagte der Außenminister. Zwar müsse er „sehr vorsichtig sein“, aber seine Überzeugung sei es, dass es nicht einen plötzlichen Umschwung nach der amerikanischen Präsidentenwahl geben werde.

Kouchner hatte sich mit seiner Rede zum Ziel gesetzt, die während der Botschafterkonferenz geführten Debatten zusammenzufassen. Seine kritischen Bemerkungen zum Einflussverlust Amerikas in der Welt bezogen sich insbesondere auf die Menschenrechtspolitik. Kouchner rechtfertigte das von ihm maßgeblich entwickelte „Recht auf Einmischung“ (“droit d'ingérence“), sagte aber, er habe die Bedeutung der „Methoden“ unterschätzt, mit denen das Recht durchgesetzt werde. „Demokratischer Imperialismus“ sei zum Scheitern verurteilt, sagte Kouchner. Kouchner spricht von dauerhafter Krise Amerikas (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Christiane Amanpour Goes Over the Top!
With thanks to Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, for it was on his fine website that I came across this story:

Photo of Christiane Amanpour courtesy of Google Images

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY (IBD): Global Jihad: CNN's chief apologist for Islam, Christiane Amanpour, has gone too far this time. Not content to just whitewash jihad, she says Jews and Christians are terrorists, too.

According to her new three-part series, "God's Warriors," militant Islamists are really no different than right-wing Christians or Jews. So who are we in the West to judge?

Of course, it's cultural relativism — and journalism — at its worst. What's stunning is the lack of evidence Amanpour provides to support her case.

That CNN would give her six prime-time hours to peddle such tendentious trash to a public still under real threat from Islamic terror speaks volumes about the network's agenda.

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America slammed the series as "one of the most grossly distorted programs" ever aired on mainstream American TV.

CAMERA was being kind. Amanpour's premise that Christianity and Judaism have spawned just as many terrorists as Islam is absurd on its face.

To be sure, not all Muslims are terrorists. But the vast majority of terrorists are Muslim, or at least claim to be Muslim. Almost all international terror is carried out, falsely or not, in the name of Islam. The data are simply overwhelming.

In contrast, history has produced only a handful of fanatics who commit violence in the name of Christianity or Judaism. Those who do are summarily arrested and punished.

They aren't held up as martyrs. There are no U.S. posters celebrating abortion clinic bombers, or Israeli history books canonizing Jewish settlers who attack Palestinians.

But Amanpour, an Iranian immigrant whose father is a Muslim, wants to change that reality.

She and her Islamic apologist pal Karen Armstrong — a "scholar" she returns to throughout her "documentary" — sugar-coat jihad as inner struggle against sin and not warfare. If you want militancy, they argue, look no further than fundamentalist Christians. Amanpour’s Apologia (more)

Mark Alexander

Eine Warnung von Prof. Doktor Bassam Tibi

Prof. Doktor Bassam Tibi, Göttingen Universität, Deutschland

SONNTAGS-INTERVIEW MIT BASSAM TIBI: Er ist Moslem und Alt-68er: Dennochwarnt der deutsche Politologe BassamTibi vor zu viel Toleranz gegenüber Glaubensbrüdern, die unter dem Gesetz der Scharia leben wollen. Ein Gespräch über Dschihadismus, Mohammed-Karikaturen und das Schütteln von Händen. Das Sonntags-Interview (mehr)

Mark Alexander

Financial Crises: From 1929 to the Present Day
BBC: The current market jitters are centred on disturbances in the world's credit markets. Worries about the viability of sub-prime mortgage lending have spread around the financial system, and the central banks have been forced to pump in billions of dollars to oil the wheels of lending.

But what happened in previous financial crises, and what are the lessons for today?

There have been a growing number of financial crises in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Among the key lessons of previous major financial crises are:

• Globalisation has increased the frequency and spread of financial crises, but not necessarily their severity

• Early intervention by central banks is more effective in limiting their spread than later moves

• It is difficult to tell at the time whether a financial crisis will have broader economic consequences

• Regulators often cannot keep up with the pace of financial innovation that may trigger a crisis.

Financial Crises: Lessons from History By Steve Schifferes

THE TELEGRAPH:
Shares fall as US house prices in record nosedive By David Litterick, New York

Subprime Crisis

Business Comment: US housing crash reminds us we're due a correction By Richard Fletcher

Mark Alexander

The Saudi Understanding of ‘Freedom of the Press’
BBC: Saudi Arabia has reportedly banned an influential pan-Arab newspaper after it criticised government ministries.

Sources at the al-Hayat daily said it was banned after refusing to abide by information ministry orders, including scrapping a column by a Saudi writer.

The paper, owned by a top Saudi prince, was not distributed this week in the conservative kingdom, officials said.

Recent columns by Abdul Aziz Suwaid had tackled health care problems and a wave of mysterious deaths among camels.

The government has blamed about 2,000 camel deaths on poor feed, denying the presence of an infectious disease.

Other reports say the ban followed al-Hayat's disclosure that a Saudi extremist had played a key role in al-Qaeda in Iraq. Saudis 'ban' pan-Arab newspaper (more)

Mark Alexander

Save Your Presidency, George! Go For It!

Photo of George W Bush courtesy of the BBC

BBC: US President George W Bush has warned Iran to stop supporting the militants fighting against the US in Iraq.

In a speech to US war veterans in Reno, Nevada, Mr Bush renewed charges that Tehran has provided training and weapons for extremists in Iraq.

"The Iranian regime must halt these actions," he said.

Earlier, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned that US authority in the region was rapidly collapsing, and Iran would help fill the void.

"Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region," Mr Ahmadinejad said.

"Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap, with the help of neighbours and regional friends like Saudi Arabia, and with the help of the Iraqi nation."

'Nuclear threat'

In his speech to the American Legion, Mr Bush hit back, accusing Iran's Revolutionary Guards of funding and arming insurgents in Iraq.

And he said Iran's leaders could not avoid some responsibility for attacks on coalition troops and Iraqi civilians.

"I have authorised our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran's murderous activities," he said. Bush warns Iran over insurgents (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
US ‘willing’ to confront Iran

Mark Alexander

Iran Ready to Fill Power Vacuum in Iraq
YAHOO NEWS: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said US power is rapidly collapsing in Iraq and that his country is ready to step in to fill the power vacuum.

Mr Ahmadinejad said: "The political power of the occupiers (of Iraq) is being destroyed rapidly and very soon we will be witnessing a great void of power in the region.

"We, with the help of regional friends and the Iraqi nation, are ready to fill this void." Iran 'is ready to fill Iraq power vacuum' (more)

Mark Alexander

Vlad a Hit Even in Global Gay Community!

What's up with Vlad?

LONDON (Reuters) - Time was, all a politician had to do to look good was kiss a baby. These days, projecting the right image is getting a whole lot more strenuous.

From Russian President Vladimir Putin being photographed bare-chested and muscle-bound fishing in a river, to French President Nicolas Sarkozy paddling a canoe in his swimming trunks, fitness and action are the political order of the day.

Get it right, and the publicity can be winning -- Putin's mountain-landscape poses have been a hit among female voters at home, according to Russian media, and have apparently struck a chord amongst the global gay community as well. Hunky Vlad, slim Sarko -- playing with PR fire (more)

Mark Alexander

Die Wahl Güls in der Türkei bedeutet einen neuen Schub für die Beitrittsbemühungen der Türkei in die EU, so Barosso
FFRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: 28. August 2007

Das türkische Parlament hat Außenminister Gül zum 11. Staatspräsidenten gewählt. Für Gül stimmten 339 der 550 Abgeordneten und damit 63 mehr als erforderlich. In der dritten Wahlrunde genügte eine absolute Mehrheit der Abgeordneten. In den beiden ersten Runden hatte er die erforderliche Zweidrittelmehrheit verfehlt. Für den Kandidaten der „Partei der Nationalistischen Bewegung“ (MHP), Sabahattin Cakmakoglu, stimmten 70 Abgeordnete, für Tayfun Icli von der „Partei der Demokratischen Linken“ (DSP) 13. Die muslimisch-konservative AKP, der Gül bis zu seiner Wahl angehörte, ist im Parlament mit 341 Abgeordneten vertreten.

Nach der Wahl schwor Gül vor dem Parlament seinen Amtseid. Seine Frau Hayrünnisa war bei der Zeremonie nicht zugegen. Danach legte Gül am Grabmal Atatürks einen Kranz nieder. Am Abend übergab der bisherige Amtsinhaber Sezer in einer formlosen und nichtöffentlichen Zeremonie die Amtsgeschäfte an seinen Nachfolger. Gül hatte wiederholt versprochen, er wolle Präsident aller Türken sein sowie die Trennung von Staat und Religion aufrechterhalten. Er gilt als der Architekt des türkischen EU-Kurses. Auch als Staatspräsident wolle er außenpolitische Akzente setzen, hatte er vor der Wahl angekündigt.

EU-Kommission erfreut

Die Europäische Union begrüßte die Wahl Güls. Dadurch erhielten die Beitrittsbemühungen einen neuen Schub, sagte EU-Kommissionspräsident Barroso. Abdullah Gül ist neuer Präsident (mehr) Von Rainer Herman in Istanbul

LE FIGARO:
Gül, nouveau président turc

« Un nouvel élan pour l'adhésion à l’Union européenne »

Abdullah Gül : un islamiste dans le fauteuil d'Atatürk

Mark Alexander

Alive in Baghdad: Arab Journalist Discusses Iraq

Mark Alexander

Former Islamist, Abdullah Gül, Voted President of Turkey

The Guls, behijabbed and triumphant

BBC: Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist, has been elected president in a parliamentary vote.

Mr Gul was elected in a third round of voting, after months of tension between Turkey's ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party and the secular establishment.

The vote came a day after a new warning from the military about attempts to undermine the secular constitution.

Mr Gul, whose wife wears a Muslim headscarf, has pledged to respect Turkey's secular institutions.

The AKP, which won recent snap polls, needed only a simple majority in the third round of voting.

Turkey's military chief warned on Monday that "centres of evil" were trying to undermine the state.

Gen Yasar Buyukanit did not name those he said were "trying to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic."

But analysts said the statement was clearly aimed at Mr Gul, a devout Muslim. Turkish MPs elect Gul president (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Turkey Set for New Leader

REUTERS:
Turkey's Gul stirs hope among devout Muslims

Mark Alexander

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words

Photo of Barack Obama courtesy of Spiegel International

Mark Alexander

EU Xenophobia Report
SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The European Union has published a new report on racism in Europe. Germany comes in for criticism on several fronts, including violent crimes and discrimination against foreigners in the job and housing markets.

Racism has become a front-page issue in Germany in recent days after an apparently xenophobic attack on eight Indians (more...) in the eastern German town of Mügeln. Now a new European Union report on racism reveals the full extent of the problem -- and shows that everyday racism in the general population is just as much an issue as right-wing extremism.

The "Report on Racism and Xenophobia in the Member States of the EU" was published Tuesday by the Vienna-based European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) -- an agency which was created on Mar. 1, 2007 to replace the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.

The report shows that violent racism appears to be on the increase in Germany, with reported incidents of racist violence and crime increasing by 14 percent between 2005 and 2006, going up from 15,914 incidents in 2005 to 18,142 in 2006. However the report did say that the figures for reported crimes "should be interpreted with caution," as an apparent increase can reflect better data collection as well as real increases.

Crime with an extremist right-wing motive also showed an increase, going up from 15,361 incidents in 2005 to 17,597 incidents in 2006, a 14.6 percent increase. "The observation of this apparent upward trend in extremist activity in Germany is supported by reports of increased right-wing attacks noted by victim support organizations in eastern parts of the country," the report's authors write.

However the incidence of anti-Semitic crime in Germany remained fairly constant, with 1,662 incidents in 2006 compared to 1,682 in 2005. Racism On the Rise in Germany (more)

Mark Alexander

Come Off It Miliband! This Is Supposed To Be A Democracy!
THE TELEGRAPH: The Government today insisted there would be no referendum on the new EU treaty, despite revelations in the Daily Telegraph that 120 Labour MPs now want a public vote.

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, said this morning that the treaty was different in "absolute essence" from the defunct European constitution, so the Government was not obliged to follow through on its manifesto pledge to hold a referendum.

"We have not got a European constitution," Mr Miliband told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"Twenty-seven European heads of government all signed a document in June, after nearly two years of negotiation, saying the constitutional concept has been abandoned."

He added: "I think that as Parliament gets to grips with the reform treaty that comes out, as they look line by line, they will see first that it is good for Britain, second that it is very different from the constitution in absolute essence, and third that the red lines, the key national interests in foreign policy and other areas of the UK have been protected."

Mr Miliband was responding to revelations in today's Daily Telegraph that more than 120 Labour MPs, including several senior ministers, want a referendum on the new EU reform treaty. Government defies rebels on EU referendum (more) By Toby Helm

Mark Alexander

Mont Pelerin and All That
THE GUARDIAN: A cabal of intellectuals and elitists hijacked the economic debate, and now we are dealing with the catastrophic effects

For the first time the UK's consumer debt exceeds the total of its gross national product: a new report shows that we owe £1.35 trillion. Inspectors in the United States have discovered that 77,000 road bridges are in the same perilous state as the one which collapsed into the Mississippi. Two years after Hurricane Katrina struck, 120,000 people from New Orleans are still living in trailer homes and temporary lodgings. As runaway climate change approaches, governments refuse to take the necessary action. Booming inequality threatens to create the most divided societies the world has seen since before the first world war. Now a financial crisis caused by unregulated lending could turf hundreds of thousands out of their homes and trigger a cascade of economic troubles.

These problems appear unrelated, but they all have something in common. They arise in large part from a meeting that took place 60 years ago in a Swiss spa resort. It laid the foundations for a philosophy of government that is responsible for many, perhaps most, of our contemporary crises.

When the Mont Pelerin Society first met, in 1947, its political project did not have a name. But it knew where it was going. The society's founder, Friedrich von Hayek, remarked that the battle for ideas would take at least a generation to win, but he knew that his intellectual army would attract powerful backers. Its philosophy, which later came to be known as neoliberalism, accorded with the interests of the ultra-rich, so the ultra-rich would pay for it.

Neoliberalism claims that we are best served by maximum market freedom and minimum intervention by the state. The role of government should be confined to creating and defending markets, protecting private property and defending the realm. All other functions are better discharged by private enterprise, which will be prompted by the profit motive to supply essential services. By this means, enterprise is liberated, rational decisions are made and citizens are freed from the dehumanising hand of the state.

This, at any rate, is the theory. But as David Harvey proposes in his book A Brief History of Neoliberalism, wherever the neoliberal programme has been implemented, it has caused a massive shift of wealth not just to the top 1%, but to the top tenth of the top 1%. In the US, for instance, the upper 0.1% has already regained the position it held at the beginning of the 1920s. The conditions that neoliberalism demands in order to free human beings from the slavery of the state - minimal taxes, the dismantling of public services and social security, deregulation, the breaking of the unions - just happen to be the conditions required to make the elite even richer, while leaving everyone else to sink or swim. In practice the philosophy developed at Mont Pelerin is little but an elaborate disguise for a wealth grab.

So the question is this: given that the crises I have listed are predictable effects of the dismantling of public services and the deregulation of business and financial markets, given that it damages the interests of nearly everyone, how has neoliberalism come to dominate public life? How the neoliberals stitched up the wealth of nations for themselves (more) By George Monbiot

Mark Alexander

City Bonuses Hit Record High
THE GUARDIAN: Executives fuel spiralling demand for luxury goods amid growing inequality

City bonuses have increased by 30% to a record £14bn this year. The rise is twice as big as in 2006 and likely to exacerbate the widening gap between executive and shop-floor pay. The bonuses come against a background of record debt, rising bankruptcies and home repossessions.

Analysis by the Guardian of preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that bonuses across the economy rose 24% this spring to £26.4bn, comfortably exceeding the country's entire transport budget. More than half, £14.1bn, was earned by the 1 million people in the financial services sector. The figure for 2006 bonuses was £10.9bn.

The bonuses have fuelled unprecedented demand for luxury goods and high-end property. Bonuses are regularly cited by estate agents as a key factor in pushing up property prices in London. City bonuses hit record high with £14bn payout (more) By Ashley Seager

Mark Alexander

Sarkozy Issues a Warning on Iran

Photo of the pro-American President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, courtesy of The Telegraph

THE TELEGRAPH: Nicolas Sarkozy gave warning yesterday that unless the West redoubled its efforts to curb Teheran's nuclear ambitions it could lead to "an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran".

The French president, in his first major speech on foreign policy, made it clear he intends to apply the same energetic approach to French diplomacy as he has to domestic policy since taking office in May. 

From the Middle East to relations with Russia, the president promised a break with France's traditional Gaullist position of "splendid isolation", particularly towards the United States.

Speaking to 180 French ambassadors, Mr Sarkozy said a nuclear-armed Iran would be "unacceptable" and that the only response was to tighten sanctions while being open to talks if Iran suspended nuclear activities.

"This initiative is the only one that can enable us to escape an alternative that I say is catastrophic: the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran," he said, adding that it was the worst crisis facing the world. Nicolas Sarkozy warns of Iran's nuclear crisis (more) By Henry Samuel in Paris

TIMESONLINE:
Sarkozy gets tough on Iran; but goes soft on Turkey

Mark Alexander

No to Amnesties! Stop the Bloody Appeasement, You Twerps!

Would you buy a used car from this man?

BBC: Illegal immigrants should be given "selective amnesty" to allow them to earn the right to British citizenship, the Liberal Democrats have said.

Home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said those staying long-term should be able to apply for permanent residence.

But they should be required to fulfil a series of conditions, such as the ability to speak English, he said.

The Home Office said it had no plans for an amnesty and was removing a failed asylum seeker every half hour. Lib Dems urge immigrant amnesty (more)

Mark Alexander